My First World Diamond Congress, Part Three
My last day at the 41st World Diamond Congress started in the fourth century BC and ended with a press conference about the future. That is not an exaggeration, and it might be the best way to describe how this whole experience felt. One session took me back to a fort on the Godavari river where diamonds were traded 500 years ago. A few hours later, I was listening to the incoming WFDB president say “this is not the end, this is the beginning” as the gavel came down on the Congress itself. Somewhere between those two moments, I think I finally understood what this industry actually is: something ancient enough to have its own scripture, and young enough to still be arguing about what to call itself.
Golconda: Where Diamond History Begins
The word “Golconda” comes from Telugu, Golu for shepherd community and Konda for hill. In the early 16th century, a fort was built there that became a major hub for gems, spices, textiles, gold, and silver. The Golconda region itself stretches between the Godavari river in the north and the Krishna river in the south, and it once contained 38 alluvial diamond mines. Local kings forbade selling diamonds near the mines themselves, so every stone from all 38 sites had to be brought to the fort to be traded.
Here is the part that surprised me most: calling only Type IIA, D-color diamonds “Golconda” is a historical misnomer. Every diamond that came out of those 38 mines is, by definition, a Golconda diamond. The narrower definition has been widely exploited in the trade over the years, which is a polite way of saying it has been used to make ordinary stones sound rarer than they are.
Older Than the GIA by 900 Years
India’s diamond classification history goes back further than I expected. Kautilya’s writings from the 4th century BC, under Chandragupta Maurya, list six diamond-producing regions and describe diamonds as essential to the royal treasury, classified by color. A few centuries later, Varahamihira’s Brihat Samhita named the region “Makhanga” and classified diamonds by color, quality, and crystal form.
The one that really stopped me was the Brihadeeshwara Temple in Thanjavur. Inscriptions from the 11th century record an entire diamond classification system, including one crown listed with 856 diamonds and a total count across all inscriptions exceeding 6,000 stones. The categories include smooth-edged, square, spotted, and more, along with damage history, crystal habit, and provenance by color and mine origin. That predates the GIA’s Four Cs, introduced in 1953, by nearly 900 years, and it captures details the Four Cs still do not.
Merchants, Invaders, and Vanishing Names
Long before Tavernier’s six famous journeys, merchants from across the world were already drawn to India. Russian trader Afanasy Nikitin left one of the earliest Western accounts of diamond mines near Bidar, describing 50 boys mining alluvially. Portuguese, Armenian, Medici, and Jewish merchants all passed through, and the Arab geographer Al-Masudi wrote about the region in Meadows of Gold and Mines of Jewels. A lot of the vernacular texts from this period remain untranslated and unfunded, which feels like its own quiet tragedy for anyone who cares about provenance.
Then came the looting. Nadir Shah stripped the Mughal treasury in Delhi, melting the gold and crating the gemstones back to Persia. The Koh-i-Noor traveled from Persia to Afghanistan to Punjab before landing in England’s Crown Jewels. Thomas Pitt, Governor of Madras, acquired what became the Regent Diamond, later set into Napoleon’s sword and now sitting in the Louvre. Many of these large stones were recut after they changed hands, which erased both their inscribed names and their original provenance. It is a strange thing to sit with: some of the most famous diamonds in the world lost their history in the very act of being made more beautiful.
Natural, Synthetic, and a Formal Motion
The speaker made an analogy I keep thinking about. We call it “artificial intelligence,” not just “intelligence,” for a reason. Natural diamonds carry millions of years of planetary history. Synthetics are created in a sanitized factory environment, without that same history behind them. During the Congress, members put forward a formal motion to use only the term “synthetic,” never “lab-grown,” going forward.
Two legends closed out the session, and both are grounded in something closer to possible fact than pure myth. A large diamond is missing from the forehead of an idol at the Sri Ranganathaswamy temple, and its size maps closely to the Orlov diamond. At the Kanyakumari Amman temple, the goddess’s large uncut diamond nose ring reportedly served as a lighthouse for mariners. And then there is the Nizam of Hyderabad’s collection: buckets of diamonds, pearls, rubies, and emeralds washed on the terrace every year, a French jeweler named Oscar Massin commissioned to build a diamond belt after a maharaja’s agent walked in with a bowl of Indian diamonds, and a 120.5-carat stone from the collection matched to historical drawings during cataloging. I did not make it to Dr. Balakrishnan’s follow-up talk at the Asian Civilisations Museum, but it is now firmly on my list for the next time this history comes back around.
The Closing Ceremony: “This Is Not the End”
The 41st Congress wrapped with remarks from the outgoing president, the incoming president, and the board, with the next Congress set for three years from now.
The outgoing president thanked everyone in the room, singling out Jerome for his guidance (and, in his words, his scolding) throughout the Congress, and offering special recognition to Ronnie and Sabine with the line “we say best when we say nothing at all.” He congratulated incoming president Mehul and pledged full support, then made his central point: the unity built here cannot stay in Singapore. Members need to carry the spirit, enthusiasm, and determination forward. Together we are stronger.
There was real substance mixed into the farewells too. IDMA membership is shrinking as manufacturing centers contract, and African manufacturing hubs need closer ties to the organization. Two pieces of news landed hard in the room: the Canadian Ekati mine is shutting down, and De Beers is temporarily suspending mining at its Venetia mine in South Africa. One line from this session has stuck with me since: the industry has stopped telling the story that creates consumer desire. The opportunity to reconnect people with that story is still there, and it came with a direct call to support NVC initiatives and be patient for results.
New WFDB leadership was announced: Mehul as President, William Vergamin as Deputy, and Malefi Letsicki as Treasurer General, alongside new board members. Yoram Pasch and Moises Salem were thanked for their outgoing service. The TGI team got a full round of recognition, Fabio Cascapera, Suresh Khadamani, Tom Sully, Esther, Kani, and Nicolo among them, and the incoming president specifically thanked Suresh for nearly daily collaboration throughout the planning process. Anouk was recognized for wearing several hats at once, BDD, Vice President of WFDB, and trusted advisor. The closing line from the incoming president is the one I keep coming back to: this is not the end, this is the beginning.
The Press Conference: Where the Industry Goes From Here
If the closing ceremony was about gratitude, the press conference was about what happens next.
The Congress was called a success, with strong attendance and real outcomes, and more than one person compared it to the landmark 1988 Singapore Congress, which drew over 650 delegates and set the benchmark for decades. Panels were flagged as a format worth keeping permanently at future congresses. The new WFDB president framed the core priority simply: collective action across the whole body, top-down and bottom-up.
One piece of news that stood out to me: WFDB and IDMA are reuniting after years apart, building on momentum that started back in 2018. IDMA delegates passed a unanimous resolution to keep pushing forward in close collaboration with WFDB, across industry advocacy, membership support, and joint initiatives.
Consumer Confidence Is the Real Challenge
Consumer confidence came up as the top challenge across the entire panel. Diamonds’ historic status as a symbol of prestige is under pressure, and a lack of standardization combined with discount culture is eroding trust at the consumer level. The framing that landed hardest for me: the industry needs to rebuild desire for diamonds and diamond jewelry, not just confidence in them. Those are not the same problem. There was a call for faster, more aggressive action from associations, with one line I wrote down word for word: the world is moving too fast to wait for the next meeting. The younger generation was flagged repeatedly as both the challenge and the opportunity.
Synthetic, Not Lab-Grown
The terminology debate that ran through the whole Congress showed up here too. There is no legal way to force members to use “synthetic” over “lab-grown,” but the shift is already happening organically. During the Congress itself, “synthetic” was used far more often than “lab-grown,” which the panel described as a grassroots movement that will only grow as the industry aligns.
One Standard, Enforced by Government
The WFDB president is pushing for a global standardized grading system backed by government adoption, drawing a comparison to weights and measures: one master standard, enforced at the government level. Smaller regional labs got real attention here too, since they often serve local consumers faster than large global labs like GIA. The Lab Manual Harmonization Committee (LMHC) already exists as an umbrella body for terminology alignment, and someone from the floor asked directly whether WFDB should collaborate with LMHC rather than pursue full standardization on its own. The president’s answer was that government-level adoption makes standardization non-optional once it happens. ISO standards for diamond grading already exist, building on earlier IDC and CIBJO work, and the phrase used in the room was that the wheels are already turning. No firm timeline was set, though a two-year target was suggested from the floor.
Singapore’s Show Finds Its Shape
The Singapore International Jewelry Show is shifting from a B2C event toward a hybrid B2B and B2C model. It is owned by the Italian Exhibition Group, which also runs Vicenzaoro Dubai, and this year’s edition ran across three halls with its largest participation to date. Hong Kong remains the dominant B2B show in Asia, and the advice for Singapore was to grow gradually rather than switch abruptly. The vision on the table: the first two days for trade, the final two days for premium consumers, with side events and congresses layered in as the show scales.
Two commitments came out of the floor before the room broke up: bringing smaller gem lab engagement onto the WFDB federation agenda, and publishing a WFDB standardization rulebook once the major labs are aligned. The rulebook, from what I understood, is close to ready. It is just waiting on the biggest labs to sign on.
What I Carry Home
I keep thinking about the fact that my last day at this Congress opened with a diamond classification system carved into an 11th century temple wall and closed with a room full of people arguing about ISO standards and government adoption timelines. Different tools, same instinct: people trying to make sense of something valuable, trying to protect its meaning, trying to make sure the next person who holds the stone understands what they are holding.
I came into this Congress as a first-timer, working for a family-owned gem business, half expecting to feel like an outsider in a room full of veterans. Instead I found an industry that is, in its own way, working through the exact same question I see play out at The Gem Capital: how do you carry something old into whatever comes next, without losing what made it worth carrying in the first place. This is not the end. This is the beginning. I believe that, and I am glad I got to be in the room when it was said.
